Rating: 
Summary: Understanding
Review: I married into America, so I have a few blanks I'm trying to fill in. Why is the Vietnam War such a volatile topic here? How can a two party system work so effectively? This book sheds some much needed light on both of these topics.It documents the painful contradictions between a person helping others and the government using force to make people help eachother. Horowitz is completly defenceless in his description of how harmless college liberals who want to help people turn into individuals who justify any means to gain what they see as correct behaviour in their neighbours. In doing this he also tells some of the truth about Vietnam. His description of the aids epidemic in San Fran also struck me as true...exposing what one can still see happening today as people react with political correctness, allowing the infection to spread. The book also lets one see how the two party system takes full advantage of the pendulum of human reaction. When one side gets too radical it looses proponents thus the culture swings from Liberal to Conservative and maybe back. Finally "Radical Son" also paints an alarmingly intimate portrait of the author which really ups it's beach book appeal, and, like watching VH1's Behind the Music, leaves you understanding a man better than you did before reading the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Is the child the father to the man?
Review: .
This book fails to deliver on its promise to explain Mr. Horowitz's intellectual journey from left to right. For example, when speaking of his decision (made with a friend) to vote for Reagan, Mr. Horowitz tells us: "In truth, neither of us had systematically thought our way to a conservative position. Our attitude was more a rejection of the postures we had taken in the past that had proved so empty and destructive." The problem, I suppose, is that of any autobiographer - the difficulty of self-analysis and self-revelation. For example, Mr. Horowitz devotes a lengthy passage to his slow and emotionally wrenching discovery and acceptance of the likelihood that a close friend had died at the hands of his Black Panther associates and only later, almost as if it was an afterthought, does he mention that his marriage was disintegrating at about the same time. How did each of these events affect his reaction to the other? Either Mr. Horowitz doesn't know or he isn't saying. So, while Mr. Horowitz's rejection of the violence, deceit and censorship (i.e. political correctness) he found at the far left is certainly understandable, at the end of the book we still don't know why he threw the liberal baby out with the radical bathwater. All that said, this book does provide a facinating cautionary tale against unquestioning faith, whether the object is a person, an organization or an idea. Unfortunately, this message is delivered in an Ayn Rand world in which almost everyone on the left, and no one on the right, turns out to be a scalawag. (Thus, the excesses of McCarthyism are excused because, by golly, there actually were a few communists in the government in the 50s. And that Franco fellow? Why, he was just doing his part to prepare Spain for the democracy that followed his death.) The question left for the reader is whether Mr. Horowitz has learned his own lesson. Or has the radical leftist son become the radical rightist adult?
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Rating: 
Summary: is anybody awake here?
Review: don't any of you people see what a phony this guy is? i found a recent article of his online called "100,000 communists march on washington to gave aid and comfort to saddam hussein"... anybody who can say wallop like that with a straight face needs to have his head SERIOUSLY examined. david horowitz is on self-important crusade to spew as much conservative rhetoric as possible while doing as little research as he can. his writing is full of unsubstantiated claims and absurd conclusions, usually degenerating into crass name calling. if you thought trent lott and george w were embarrassments to conservatives they have nothing on this guy. if you are one of those people who think that communists flourinated water in the fifties and secretly infiltrated our society then you and joe mccarthy will probably eat this stuff up, but if you have any reason whatsover or (gasp!) openmindedness you will want to stay far far away. (unless you read this for amusement to see how ignorant somebody can be and still get published)
Rating:
Summary: Getting Closure on the Sixties . . .
Review: David Horowitz has written a book that will be cited and remembered for many years to come. His journey from Communist Children's Camp to a successful career in new left journalism to a prominent role as a conservative strategist is fascinating. More importantly, he puts the entire radical movement of the sixties into perspective by pointing out that ending the draft sucked the life out of the revolution. What appeared to be high-minded idealism turned out to be mainly fear of getting shot in a jungle war. "Radical Son" isn't in a league with "Witness" by Whittaker Chambers as a great political life story, but it approaches it. Not only do we get the benefit of Horowitz's unique experience as a top player on both sides of the political fence, we also get to learn from his family life, which is instructive. Pick it up and trade the illusions for the reality.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey Out of Darkness
Review: I have been a dedicated anti-communist since I was 8 years old, and could never understand how anyone could be a Marxist. Thanks to David, I was able to vicariously look at the world through Marxist eyes. As I suspected, Marxists are big on utopian dreams and very short on practicalities, such as...when the free market is outlawed, who is going to make what, and how will it be distributed? After tearing down the existing order, radicals don't have a clue as to what to do when the revolution is won...which explains the post-revolution economic chaos in countries like Chile. Horowitz's discussion of radical violence, e.g., murder of its own followers, was disturbing and I had trouble sleeping right after reading it. The Panthers and their ilk were so murderous and evil that it is difficult to understand how some on the Left idolize them even today. As "Radical Son" makes clear, the Panthers were nothing more than thugs, a drug-peddling, violent street gang using "Marxism" as a front. It was their violence, however, that started Horowitz on his journey out of political darkness. He experienced a true "paradigm shift," in which all the major assumptions of his life were painfully reexamined. He is now a convert to conservatism with invaluable insights into the radical mind. Horowitz is a talented writer and conveys complex thoughts in an economy of words. I plan to read all of his books.
Rating:
Summary: Superman Lives!
Review: The forces of law and order, sense and justice, still exist. This book places almost the entire left in the camp of dysfunctional black sheep. It corroborates my own arc through the radical agenda -- almost everyone in it comes from a family that didn't function, and they hate their families as a result. The symptom is a dream about how all of the world will one day unite in brother and sister hood under their red boot. The chapters on the Black Panthers were vivid and telling. Huey Newton was a gangster with a squeaky voice, hopped up on drugs. George Jackson said, "Marxism is my hustle." Their liberal white brothers, such as Tom Hayden, were just violent lunatics on the make, ... and happy to sacrifice innocent lives. This is exactly right. The same is true in the French left, all the way through the gamut. The leaders all hated their families, and so on, and so they dreamed of a universal family of misfits. I knew Ginsberg, Burroughs, and hundreds of other top leftists. What united them is they came from broken families where at least one parent was a predatory individual, or completely psychotic. The left is a cult of psychotic, power-addicted, fools, from Ralph Nader to Joseph Stalin. Horowitz dissects this humorless, self-righteous lot, and basically does them in. The book is true, and more importantly, it is smart. I hope the left doesn't assassinate him and that he can go on telling the truth for another couple of decades. Someone this smart who has run the gamut of leftist nonsense and lived to tell on it is worth their ducats. If you doubt the left, this is the book to put your last remaining pieties on the canvas with a thunderous right-cross. This man spent decades with the left. When he hits, every blow resounds. The left stinks, and deserves everything Horowitz' howitzer can hit them with.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: This is one of the most interesting and powerful books I have ever read. David Horowitz lays his soul bare for all to see in this heartrending account of his political transformation. Horowitz's upbringing as a "red diaper baby" is fascinating. His days at camp Wo-Chi-Ca (Workers Childrens Camp) illustrate the early indoctrination communists parents put their kids through. They sang the praises of Red October and were taught of the supposed evils of capitalism. In short, this portion of the book illustrates how thoudands of children were brought up to be strangers in their own country. From there he reveals how the Left's world was shattered when Krushchev announced that Stalin's crimes were indeed true. That's when the New Left was formed, and naturally he was a part of it. From there he toiled with the New Left's cadres to work out ways to practice communism without committing the crimes of Stalin and others. Then came Vietnam. Of course he was against America's involvement in the war. Nothing unusual there. What is unusual is his honesty about those days. Many radicals now claim that they merely opposed America's involvement in Vietnam. Horowitz shows that they did have a horse in that race and it wasn't the south. In fact he and they wanted the communists to win.
It was also during this time that his radical politics brought him into the circle of the Black Panthers. The Panthers were the darlings of the New Left, with their Marxist platitudes and violent ways. He brought in an old friend to help with the books at a community center he and the Panthers sponsored. A few months later she was missing and a few weeks after that her beaten body was found in the SF Bay. Contacts inside the Panthers told him that she was murdered by the Panthers. He began to realize that his radical politics had turned moral norms upside down, making heroes out of thugs, bombers and murderers and demonizing ordinary decent Americans. This caused many years of soul-searching. When he re-emerged, his whole worldview had changed. Like I said, powerful. Read it and cry for a lost generation.
Rating:
Summary: I agree
Review: I agree with the person before me who believes that David Horowitz wrote himself out of much of the dangerous and illegal activities and the times of almost compulsory drug abusing. Outside of the that, I found his story intriguing and his views of history enlightening. Well written, well documented. Made me want to read much more from his source material, plus follow up on his current career activities.
Rating:
Summary: ...a man looked up and saw the sky....
Review: If you want a real story of the 60's radicals and not a fuzzy,whitewashed,'we had good intentions'nonsense then here is a fine place to start.Horowitz recounts often in minute detail the mindset of those who would apologize,rationalize and canonize murderous totalitarian regimes,dictators and political ideologies like marxism that made life a living hell for billions of people in the 20th century.Horowitz doesn't let the intellectual charlatans like Sarte,Shaw,Chomsky,Hayden,Mailer and various radicals of their ilk off the hook;their playing dumb or rationalizing mass murder in the name of progressiveness simply does not fly anymore.Today the radicals are seen for what they were: spoiled and mostly affluent thugs and barbarians who hid their lust for power and domination behind slogans of peace,justice and equality to further the agenda of overthrowing society so that they,the noble saviors,would step in and lead humanity down the proper path-straight into gas chambers and reeducation camps in all probability.Count your blessings they never had the opportunity.Horowitz finally came to realize that what he was actively supporting was a return to the dark ages,a dystopian hell built with pretty slogans and o so seemingly noble gestures.The demagoguery,dishonest presuppositions about America and capitalism,the hatred of Democracy precisely because it allows the little man to live his life the way he sees fit and not according to the arbiters of culture and other such Stalinesque vultures who would kill and enslave people for their 'own good';this is the way of the radical,and Horowitz gives the creature a thorough and deserved drubbing.Horowitz lightly touches on a persistent motif of radical movements,namely,that it is the offspring of the affluent,trustee babies,Hollywood stars and academics (who've never had to hold a real job in the real world-another characheristic of the type) who lead such movements;that precisely those who've most benefitted from Democracy and capitalism are those who seek to deny it to others.An excellent book by the title of _Guilt blame and politics_ might be of some help to you in exploring this phenomenon in depth.
Rating:
Summary: Much more than a political essay
Review: This is truly an autobiography, and one in which the author spends the time and the courage to face down many of his inner demons and past wrongs. There is no other book which I have read which better relates why the left as it existed in the 60's and 70's was truly evil. No matter how prejudiced you may considered yourself in either direction of the political spectrum the story will certainly make you reconsider what you thought you knew. Betrayal would be the overarching theme to the work, personal and political and often the two are intertwined such that they are not distinguishable from each other.
The reason I rate this 4 instead of 5, is that I think that often times the author convieniently paints himself out of the picture, whenever he reports truly questionable or disturbing radical activities, that I believe he must have surely been involved in.
If you consider yourself a political animal, no matter your stripe, pick up this book, either as ammo or to prepare your defense.
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